Chapter Fifteen - Brooke

I feel like I can’t think or breathe. I’m just in total panic mode. Jeff is knocked out, but he’ll wake up soon and probably tell the police his version of everything. Autumn is on her way. She’ll be here with me and the police and Anthony. I have no idea what to do. How this day is possibly going to end without me and Autumn both being arrested? I can just see it now. Anthony will say he knocked out Jeff out to protect me, that Jeff was attacking me. Jeff will wake up and say I’m a murderer. Autumn will say something in response that will give us all away, and then it will all be over. It will be over, but in the worst possible way.

I don’t know how this happened. I honestly thought that if I gave Jeff the money, he’d go away. That he’d leave town with it, just get on his bike and ride out of my life. Instead, he’d grabbed the check and attacked me, telling me it wasn’t going to be that easy and pinning me beneath him. Now Anthony is in the middle of it all, asking so many questions. Questions I don’t know how to begin to answer, or if I even can.

Autumn arrives at the same time as the police, and I pull out of Anthony’s embrace, shaking. I run up to Autumn, thinking maybe I can still get her to leave or at least convince her not to say anything. Anthony stands too and goes to talk to the police. I’m grateful he’s here, even if everything is going wrong. Even if I wish he wasn’t involved at all. His talking to the police buys me and Autumn a little time, and he seems to get that, though I haven’t told him anything.

“I heard my friend scream and I found this creep holding her down,” Anthony is saying to a tall and serious-looking police officer. I grab Autumn’s arm and steer her to a corner so we can talk while Anthony tells the police what he saw today.

“Oh my God, Brooke. Are you okay?” Autumn asks.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I say. Autumn shakes her head.

“Yes I should,” she says. She’s fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, but her eyes are locked on me.

“You can’t be, not with Jeff and the police here,” I start, but Autumn cuts me off.

“He’s been threatening you, hasn’t he?” Autumn asks.

I nod, looking at the floor. “He wanted money or else he was going to go to the police,” I tell her, looking at the ground. I had never planned to tell her that. I never wanted to her to have to worry about Jeff.

“You should have told me that. I wouldn’t have let you handle it alone,” Autumn says, reaching out to squeeze my hand.

“I promised you I’d protect you,” I say, “and I still will.”

“No,” Autumn says. “It’s time for me to end this.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, frowning. My pulse is still going far too fast, and I feel like I might throw up at any moment.

“I’m going to tell the police the truth: that it was self-defense, but that I killed that man,” Autumn says. Her face looks resolved and determined.

“I won’t let you do that,” I say. “I promised you that you wouldn’t go to jail.”

“It’s not up to you, Brooke. I need to deal with this, I want to. It’s been too long already. I can’t run from this anymore. All this time, I’ve been putting you in danger instead of telling the truth,” Autumn says. She pulls me into a tight hug and I hug her back, still shaking.

“You don’t have to do this,” I say, even though part of me knows she’s right. That it’s not up to me.

“Yes, I do,” Autumn says, “for the both of us.”

Autumn pulls back from our hug and smiles at me, a little unsteady but seemingly real. She takes a shuddering breath and walks over to the police and Anthony as I follow. It’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Part of me still wants to stop her, wants to throw myself in between my little sister and the police, keeping her safe, but I don’t. I stand close to Anthony, trying to breathe and catch my footing.

“Are you ready to make a statement about your attack?” one of the officers asks me. Anthony puts a hand on the small of my back like he wants to steady me – to reassure me everything is going to be okay. It works. I feel like some of the tension and stress I’m carrying seeps out of me at his touch.

“I need to make a statement too,” Autumn says, and the police turn to look at her in surprise.

“Did you witness the attack?” the tall officer asks, frowning at his notes.

“No, but I caused it,” Autumn says. The police exchange a look and then nod, leading us all to sit down on the few chairs that are scattered around to tell our story. Jeff is in handcuffs, and the police say they have someone on the way to pick him up to take him to a holding cell. Apparently, he’s got a long list of prior arrests and convictions, as well as several arrest warrants out for him. I don’t know how I hadn’t known that, or even how I could have ever thought he was a good guy.

Autumn and I tell our story in bits and pieces. Autumn does a lot more talking than I do. She tells the police how she’d been assaulted a few years ago and has carried a gun for protection ever since. She explains that a man had grabbed her that night and she’d tried to fight him. She talks about how he punched me when I tried to rescue her, and then about how she’d been sure she was going to die when his hands were closing around her neck. I back her up, say I’d seen the same things, just as sure he was going to kill her. I talk about Jeff walking in after I grabbed the gun, about how he is my ex-boyfriend and how he’s been stalking and harassing me, making threats and demanding money.

The police take our story down, asking questions and making notes. Anthony reaches over and laces our fingers together, squeezing my hand as I tell the police everything. I feel stronger with him beside me, more like I can handle all of this. The police say that they have to check into a few things, verify Autumn’s weapons permit, and look into the man who’d attacked her, but that it sounds like a pretty clear case of self-defense. They tell us we’re all free to go home, and that they’ll be in touch. I sag into Anthony in relief, dizzy at the idea that it’s all over.

Autumn and I hug tightly when they leave, and then she whispers that she wants to know everything that’s going on with me and Anthony later. She goes home, and I turn to Anthony, physically and emotionally exhausted.

“Come home with me,” he says. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

“Thank you,” I say, “for everything.”

He kisses me softly, hugs me tightly, and takes me home.